Five men charged in connection with historical child sexual abuse

Margaret Parsons

Five men have been charged following an investigation into historical child sexual abuse.

The investigation dates back to the late 1990s and early 2000s and relates to offences allegedly committed in the Blackburn and Accrington areas and involving one female victim aged between 12 and 17 at the time.

The men were arrested in May and have now been charged with a variety of offences.

They are: 1) Abbas Khan, 58, of Hubie Street, Burnley who is charged with three offences of Rape contrary to Section 1 of the Sexual Offences Act 1956 between 15/06/1998 and 14/06/1999 when the victim was 14; one offence of rape contrary to Section 1 of the Sexual Offences Act 1956 between 15/06/199 and 14/06/2000 when the victim was 15 and nine offences of Indecent Assault contrary to Section 14 of the Sexual Offences Act 1956 between 15/06/1997 and 14/06/2000.

2) Eijaz Khan, 46, of Casterton Avenue, Burnley who is charged with one offence of Rape contrary to Section 1 of the Sexual Offences Act 1956 between 15/06/1997 and 14/06/1998 and eight counts of Indecent Assault contrary to Section 14 of the Sexual Offences Act 1956 between 15/06/1998 and 14/06/2000

3) Javid Raza, 57, of Crosshill Road, Blackburn who is charged with six offences of Indecent Assault contrary to Section 14 of the Sexual Offences Act 1956 between 15/06/1998 and 14/06/1999

Two other men, Arif Nadeem, 37, of Craven Street, Accrington and Amin Akhtar, 34, of HMP Forest Bank, are jointly charged with one count of Rape contrary to Section 1 of the Sexual Offences Act 1956 between 15/06/2000 and 14/06/2001.

A 39 year old man from Accrington arrested in May on suspicion of Rape remains on bail until March next year.

Detective Chief Inspector Claire McEnery, of Lancashire Constabulary’s Public Protection Unit, said: “We have been working very closely with the alleged victim for a number of months since these matters came to our attention.

"Child sexual exploitation is one of the constabulary’s top priorities and the team working on this inquiry is a specialist team set up specifically to investigate allegations of historical sexual abuse and includes officers from the Public Protection Division, who are experts in dealing with vulnerable victims and working with partner agencies.

“We take all allegations of sexual abuse extremely seriously and we would encourage people with any information about the sexual abuse of children, or anyone who has been a victim of sexual abuse to come forward and report their concerns confident in the knowledge it will be investigated appropriately and with sensitivity.”

All those charged are bailed to appear before Burnley Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday, December 29th.

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